For example, in the field of an electron beam writing technology, the inventors of the present invention have studied the following technologies.
In a conventional electron beam writing system, the size of a deflection field (region) on a sample which is scanned the fastest by a deflector has been about 50 μm square (see, for example, Sakitani et al. “Journal of Vacuum and Technology” 1992, B12, pp. 2759 to 2763 (non-patent document 1)).
Also, in order to accurately deflect the 50-μm-square region, deflection is corrected. More specifically, an electron beam is deflected to a position near a corner of the deflection field to detect a mark for correction near it, thereby measuring and correcting the difference between a desired deflection amount and the actually measured deflection amount.
The electron beam writing system having a micro deflection field of about 2 μm square has been proposed recently (see, for example, Iwadate et al. “Journal of Vacuum and Technology” 1987, B5, pp. 75 to 78 (non-patent document 2).